The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-10-07
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
iTew-Fangled Beliefs vs.. The Re-
ligion of the Bible.
The Only Source of True Happiness to
be Found in a Strict Observance OF
Christian Doctrine-Advice
to Young Men.

Christian Doctrine-AdVice
to Young Men.
Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage, in a recent
sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, took
for his subject, GA Straight Up-and-Down
Religion" His text was
And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what
/ seest thou? and I said, A plumb Ine.-Amos
7 vii, s.
Dr.. TaImage said: The sold masonry of
| the world has to me a fascination. Walk
| about some of the triumphal arches and
the cathedrals, four hundred or six hum
/ dred years old, and see them stand as
erect when they were builded, walls of
| great height for centuries, not bending a
| quarter Of an inch in this way or that.
| So greatly honored were the masons who
| builded these walls that they were free
| from taxation and called "free" masons.
| The trOwel gets most of the credit for
| these buildings, and its clear ringing on
! stone and brick has sounded across the
| ages. But there is another implement Of
/ just as much Importance as the trowel,
| and my text recognizes it. Brickleyers
/ and stonemasOns and carpenters, in the
| building of walls, use an instrument made
| of a cord, at the end of which a lump of
| lead is fastened. They drop it over
the side of the wall, and, as
the plummet naturally seeks the center of
/ RIdh1bN III Inc Gdl LII JAo ROAAILdAA Alo-
/ covers where the wall recedes and where it
| bulges out, and just what is the perpen-
| dcular. Our text represents God as stand
| ing on the wall of character, which the
Israe8tes had built, and in that way
measuring it.
And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what
| seest thou? and said, plumb line.
What the world wants is a straight up
and-dOwn religion. Much of the so-called
| piety of the day bends this way and that,
| to suit the times. 1t is horizontal with
| low state of sentiment and morals. We
| have all been building a wall of character,
| and it is glaringly imperfect, and needs
| reconstruction. How shall it be brought
| into the perpendicular? Only by the
| divine measurement.
| And the Lord said to me- Amos, what seest
| thou? and I said, A plumb line.
The whole tendency of the times is to
make US act by the standard of what
| others do. If they play cards, we play
| cards. If they dance, we dance. If they
read certain styles of books, we read them.
| We throw over the wall of our character
| the tangled plumb line of other lives, and
reject the infallible test which Amos saw.
! The question for me should not be what
| you think is right, but what God thinks is
/ right. This perpetual reference to the be-
/ havior of others, as though it decided any
| thing bat human fallibility, is a mistake
! AS " ltiG stH bLb w D1A0 1u5I5 bA . l6AA bA1Ou~
| sand plumb lines in use, but only one is
true and exact, and that is the line of
/ Gods eternal right. There is a mighty
4 attempt being made to reconstruct and fix
/ up the Ten Commandments. To many
| they seem too rigid. The tower Of Pisa
/ leans over about thirteen feet from the
/ perpendicular, and people go thousands of
I miles to its graceful inclination, and
by extra braces and various archi-
/ tectural contrivances it is kept lean
/ ing from century to century. Why
not have the ten granite blocks Of Sinai
/ set a little aslant? Why not heve the pill
+ lar Of truth a leaning tower? Why is
not an ellipse good as good as square?
Why is not an Oblique as good as
i straight up and down? My friends, we
must have a standard; shall it be Gods or
mans?
The divine plumb line needs to be
4 thrown over all merchandise. Thousands
of years ago Solomon discovered the ten
dency Of buyers to depreciate goods. He
saw a man beating down article lower
and lower, and saying it was not worth
the price asked, and when he had pur-
chased at the lowest point he told every
body what a sharp bargain he had struck,
and how he had OUtwitted the merchant.
It IS naught it is naught, saith the buyer but
when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.
Proverbs Xxx. IA.
So utterly askew is society in this mat
ter that you seldom find a seller asking
+ the price that he expects to get. He puts
on a higher value than he proposes to re-
ceive, knowing that he viii have to drop.
And if he wants fifty, he asks seventy
five. And if he wants two thousand he
asks two thousand five hundred.
cit is naught," saith the buyer. ''The
fabric is defective; the style Of goods is
poor; can get elsewhere better article
at a smaller price. 1t is out of fashion; it
is damaged; it will fade; it viii not wear
we'll" After a while, the merchant from
Z overpersuasIOn, or from the desire to dis
pose of that particular stock Of goods,
says "Well, take it at your own price,"
/ and the purchaser goes home with light
step, and calls into his private Office his
confidential friends, and chuckles while he
( tells how that for half price he got the
( goods. In other words, he lies and was
/ proud of it.
Nothing would make times as good, and
I the earning of a livelihood so easy, as the
universal adoption of the law OF right
! Suspicion strikes through all bargain-mak
! ing. Men who sell know not whether
/ they will ever get the money. Purchasers
1 know not whether the goods shipped viii
/ be according to the sample. And what
! with the large number of clerks who are
( making false entries and then absconding
to Canada, and the explosion of firms
that fail for millions of dollars, honest
men are at their wits end to make liv
/ ing.
The pressure to do wrong is all the
! stronger from the fact that in our day the
large business houses are swallowing up
the smaller, the whales dining on blue fish
/ and minnows. The large houses underselI
/ the small ones because they can afford it.
They can afford to make nothing,
/ actually lose, on some styles of goods, as
| sured they can make it up on others. So,
q great dry goods house goes outside of
\ its regular line and sells books at cost,
I and that swamps the booksellers, or, the
/ dry goods house sells bric-a-br at the
[ lowest figure, that swamps the small
/ dealer in bric-a-brac. And the same thing
goes on in other styles of merchandise,
1 and the consequence is that all along the
business streets of all our cities there are
| merchants of small capital who are in a
| terrific struggle to keep their heads above
/ water. The Cunarders run down the New
foundiand fishing smacks. This is moth
/ ing against the man who has his big
store, for every man bas as large store
| and great business as he can manage.
| To feel right under all this pressure re-
quires martyr grace, requires divine sup
port, requires celestial reinforcement.
Yet there are tens of thousands Of such
| men getting splendidly through. They
see others going up and themselves going
down, but they keep their patience, and
their courage, and their Christian consist
ency, and after while their turn of sue
cess viii come. The owners Of the big
/ business viii die and their boys viii get
! possession Of the business, and with
cigar ia their mouth, aud full to the chin
/ with the best liquor, and behind q pair Of
/ spanking bays, they viii pass every thing
on the turnpike road 70 temporal and
eternal perdition. Then the business viii